701 Strategic Leadership

Unit Overview

701 Strategic Leadership is a unit within the CMI Level 7 module that builds the ability of the leaders to focus on the organisation's strategic needs. Leaders must be able to identify and address the current needs of their organisations as well as future needs that are likely to arise in their areas of responsibility. Strategic planning and long-term objectives are some of the main elements that leaders must effectively develop to ensure that they align their professional practice to the needs of the organisation and ensure that they contribute towards meeting the vision and missions of the company.

Since it is significant for the leaders to ensure that they can develop desirable practices and performance in aligning the activities of the organisation to the strategic plan, the leaders must build competence that contributes towards achieving the desired goals and objectives. This involves developing knowledge, behaviours, and skills that contribute to building effective strategic leadership. The leaders must also understand both the theoretical and practical approaches that help them to understand the strategic needs of their specific organisation.

701 Strategic Leadership is a unit that is designed to help the learners understand the basic principles of strategic leadership this unit contributes to building the knowledge and understanding of the principles that they can apply in developing desired leadership capabilities. Within this unit, the learners are guided to effectively know the impacts of the organisational requirements and factors on their ability to effectively develop leadership strategies and competencies in their areas of responsibility. The unit contributes to preparing both new and aspiring senior managers and leaders for their duties in the organisational context. The unit is taught in 36 hours of guided learning and contributes 11 credit values toward the completion of the CMI Level module

Suitability of the Unit

Leaders within the workplace must focus on the future needs of the organisation. This involves being able to forecast the strategic needs of the organisation and ensure that they develop current activities within their areas of responsibility that ensure the organisation is able to meet the expectations in terms of performance in future. This requires these leaders to understand various principles that guide the development of effective strategic leadership. They must develop the skills, behaviours, and competencies that prepare them for the role at this strategic leadership level. As such, 701 Strategic Leadership is a critical unit that contributes towards shaping the ability of leaders within the organisation to effectively complete their duties and responsibilities as senior managers and strategic leaders within the workplace. It is suitable for all learners ensuring that they can focus their activities on future needs.

The unit is designed for senior and strategic management within the organisation. This includes the topmost level of organisational leadership and administration who make strategic decisions that impact other units of the company. The unit helps them to develop the desired skills and capabilities in their areas of responsibility. However, middle managers can use this unit to prepare them for promotion to senior levels of leadership. Other stakeholders can also pursue the unit to build their leadership knowledge and understanding.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learner should be able to:

• Appraise the impact of the organisational context on strategic leadership

• understand the role of the strategic elder in ensuring that the organisation is able to realise its goals and objectives

• appraise the leadership behaviours and skills that a strategic leader must deliver to ensure that they can deliver on the strategic goals that have been set

• Reflect on the impact of the principles of strategic leadership in their application to responding to complex organisational challenges.

Key Learning Areas

701 Strategic Leadership is a unit that focuses on building the understanding and capability of a leader to achieve eth strategic roles and responsibilities of a leader. In accomplishing these tasks, the learners must acquire training in different areas. Some of the main areas covered within this unit include:

Roles of Strategic Leadership

This area of learning initiatives the understanding of the concept and principles of strategic leadership. Learners are guided to understand the meaning and definition of strategic leadership. They are taught to differentiate between strategic leaders and other leaders within the workplace hence identifying the critical characteristics associated with strategic leadership.

Leaders are then guided to understand the significance of strategic leadership from the context of their organisations. This involves understanding the use of the competencies of a strategic leader in contributing towards the accomplishment of organisational goals and objectives and focusing on success in terms of meeting set standards of productivity. Learners are also guided to understand the organisational factors that could impact the development of an individual into a strategic leader hence building an understanding of the organisational context in the process.

Behaviors and Skills for Strategic Leadership

This area of learning helps the learner to understand the specific skills and competencies that they need to ensure that they deliver on the set strategic goals. The leaders are guided to build the skills such as problem-solving, creative thinking, critical analysis, and innovativeness to ensure that they are able to contribute towards meeting and achieving the set goals.

They are also guided to develop capabilities of meeting expectations, guiding individuals to overcome complex issues san d giving the people autonomy in making decisions which are critical in ensuring the delivery of strategic leadership duties. Lastly, the leaders are guided dot understand the role of effective communication in building trust and relationships that contribute towards accomplishing the set goals and objectives effectively.

Evaluation

On completion of the unit, the evaluation is conducted to ensure that the learners are able to master the information that has been taught. During learning, formative assessments, including interactive learning and supervised practice, are implemented to give the assessor can review of the attainment of the expected learning outcomes. A written assessment is in the summative phase to evaluate the mastery of theoretical and practical concepts that have been learned within the unit. Learners must complete the template on the unit, which the assessor uses as the main indicator of performance.